


Popular

by Vermilion_Bird



Category: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), Uglies Series - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Extras Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 03:26:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1672934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vermilion_Bird/pseuds/Vermilion_Bird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bitter with her brothers' success, extra Rin Nakamura hates fame. Her only escape from being extra is her hoverboard, but that backfires when a confrontation with one of the city's big faces throws her in the spotlight. Tokyo DriftxExtras HanXoc</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When I walk into the room people stop and stare

It's like nobody else is there

You know it's me not you

Who said anything about you

Popular- Veronicas

Z

The cold night wind swirled around me as my hover board dropped lower towards the mansion's front steps. The hood of my jacket was still up over my head enough to hide my face from the hover cams and random people arriving to the party. I stepped off my board gracefully in my heels and continued on without breaking stride as the hover cams crowded around me as close to the edge of my reputation bubble as the could get. I dipped my chin close to my chest so the only part of my face that showed was the smug smirk.

The tech head bash was swarming with big faces when I made my entrance; and I was one of the biggest. I kept my shoulders squared and my back straight as I strutted in front of all the hover cams that flitted near the ceiling above the party like minnows in a creek waiting to get shots of who was arriving. My ego went up a few notches when I noticed most of the people turning to gawk at me.

The people who I knew were there to get an interview from me to kick later started shrieking questions as they crowded around me. I ignored them as I made my way to the inside steps where the main mass of reporters were already scattered about waiting for me. Without waiting for the first question, I reached up and brushed my hood back away from my face.

The mystery revealed, the volume of the crowd swelled as the questions and protests started. I stood perfectly still and let the hover cams take in the drama that was unfolding. My smirk widened in amusement as I heard some of the protest from the adrenaline-junkie tech heads when they got a good look at me. I caught Han's eye and he gave me a nod of approval from his spot leaning against the wall with a champagne glass.

I winked back and turned my attention back to the deafening crowd of people fighting to be heard and the hover cams swarming like mosquitoes to get their shots.

So this was what it felt like to be famous.

Z

I guess I should start at the beginning.

My name is Rin Nakamura and until last week I was a completely unknown extra.

I was new pretty, not that that really mattered to anyone, and the sister of two horrible, demeaning demons of big face older brothers. The oldest, Kaede, was a genius tech head who was famous for being a genius. The middle child, Hayate, while lacking Kaede's brain, was very good at knowing which clique to get in to bump his face rank. So while their arrogant asses were parked in the biggest mansions in the famous part of town, I was stuck in miserable little Akira Hall with a face rank hovering at around 350,000.

My life was pretty much the same as every other extra in there; I merit grubbed all day before going back to bed without any sort of social life to prepare to do it all again tomorrow. I broke up the monotony of it all with hover boarding and occasionally sneaking out to party crash. I had been forced to stick to hover boarding lately, because unfortunately my big face older brothers tended to show up at the parties I chose to crash.

Getting called out as an Extra in front of hundreds of hover cams and big face tech-heads was a very shame-making experience.

After being completely embarrassed in front of most of the cities big faces, I had gotten a little bitter at the reputation economy, though I had enjoyed the extra bump in face rank.

The city interface was rigged to pick up on the use of names. The more people talking about you-good or bad- the higher your face rank went; the higher the face rank, the bigger the mansions and the bigger the wall allowances. They gave everyone their own feed so that they could kick their own stories and have an equal chance of being famous.

But to say everyone had the same chance, wasn't really true. The natural born pretty Nana Love was the second most famous person in the city simply because she was born beautiful. She could kick a thirty second story on what she had for lunch and everyone would be amazed by it Then there were people like Kaede who were famous because they were smarter than everyone else.

I was not naturally beautiful or brilliant, and I didn't have the talent that Hayate did with knowing how to get along with people, so I was stuck merit grubbing. Merits were given to doctors, teachers, wardens, and everyone else that kept the city running. If you were extra, then you were stuck going to class and watching littlies so you at least had some wall allowances.

But sometimes not even the promise of wall allowances could make me drag myself to class.

The whole city seemed to be built to make me feel horrible about being an extra. The whole time I sat trying to do assignments, I could only think that neither of my brothers had to do them when they were sixteen. Every time I checked my feeds someone was talking about one of them. Every conversation I had with someone was about how famous they were. I was tired of living invisibly in their shadows. The only time I didn't have to worry about them was when I was on my hoverboard.

That was the one thing that they would never be able to top me at. For some reason, I was really good at hover boarding. I wasn't sure if it was because I loved to fly more than most people and got more practice, or if I was just good at it, but I was. I spent every spare second on my board. I could forget about all of my other problems and just let go for a while.

But now all of the problems I had as an extra were gone. Now, for once, I was popular.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm so mad at you right now

I can't even find the words

And you're on the way down

I can't wait to see you burn.

Revenge is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were)

The Veronicas

Z

The pale morning light shone past the mansions rising on their hoverstruts across the city as the sun just started to show. There was complete silence over the city except for the occasional song of a bird as it started to wake up. Overall, it was a completely peaceful morning.

I wished that I could have enjoyed it more, but unfortunately the early spring morning had a chill that my dorm jacket just couldn't keep out. There was also no way to get comfortable sitting on my hoverboard without sending shockwaves of pain through my sore shoulders that had almost been yanked out of place by my crash bracelets; a hazard of night riding in the forest at top speed.

Watching the sun rise was one of my favorite things. If I snuck out to practice hover boarding, which I did a lot, then I almost always made myself stay out long enough to see it. I liked the peace of the early morning before the extras got up to start their day and right after the famous people crashed to sleep off the buzz from the bash the night before.

Just as the sun came up completely over the horizon, I got the ping to wake up. I flexed my fingers to silence the alarm and hauled myself to my feet. The hoverboard dipped as my weight shifted crazily, but it soon leveled out to where it was as steady as a diving board.

Okay. One more round around the trees before class. I got this. I told myself.

"Follow me through." I ordered the hovercam that was floating beside me. It get used to kick a lot of stories, but it was very useful when it came to practicing hover boarding. I learned a lot about what I was doing wrong from watching the footage my practice runs.

I leaned forward, and responding to my weight, the hoverboard shot forward. I had managed to take off every safety minder and install a few mods to boost the power even further. With the speed of my now tricked out hoverboard, every spill threatened to dislocate my shoulders when the crash bracelets kicked in.

The first tree came up fast and I leaned my weight to the right to fly past it before leaning back to the left to pass the next tree. I continued to weave through them until I got to the turn at the end of the tree line. I hadn't been paying attention, so I missed the turn and shot straight. Instead of using the whole area of the park I had flown into to turn, I panicked and banked entirely too hard and was almost thrown off.

I managed to spin myself to dispel some of the momentum, but I lost my balance and toppled off my board. The first few seconds were terrifying as I waited for the bone snapping jerking that was going to pull at my shoulders. The breath was knocked out of my lungs from the pain that came when my wrists were finally snapped over my head. The crash bracelets spun me mercilessly and I collided with something solid before they dropped me to the ground.

I struggled to regain my breath as I laid on the ground. Well, at least I thought it was the ground.

I quickly realized I was laying against a guy's strong chest when he wrapped his arms around my waist and tried to sit us up. I hissed in protest and started to swat at his arm until he let me go. I was too mad about missing the turn to be embarrassed about taking out some random guy in the park. Besides, it was five thirty in the morning; who walks through the park at five thirty in the morning? He shouldn't have been on the sidewalk.

"You know you eventually have to get off of me?" He asked in a smooth, amused voice.

"Yeah, I will when I get my breath back." I responded shortly.

"How fast is that hoverboard?" He asked conversationally.

I grit my teeth together and tried to sit up. The guy put his hands on my rib cage to steady me. I winced as I rolled my shoulders and tried to see if they were dislocated. They weren't, but they were still incredibly sore.

"No safety minders and a few mods to add a bit of kick to it." I replied through my teeth as a massaged one shoulder.

"With that speed, you have to make every movement slow and smooth. You had it between the trees." He suggested lightly. His big hands slid up to tenderly press against my shoulder blades.

"Ow." I whined. I jerked around to snap at him when I met the pretty face of Han Lue. I stiffened a little bit when I recognized him.

He was one of the most famous guys in the city, mostly because he shattered Nana Love's heart, not to mention a few other girls. He also ran with some of the most famous people it the city in a very exclusive clique. It was basically the remnant of one of the most exclusive clique from back in the pretty time. It was Hayate's clique.

"You should put some med spray on that. There's no cut to put back together, but it may help with muscle damage." He stated plainly as he pulled his hand off my shoulders.

"I'll keep that in mind." I answered. I wasn't sure why, but my voice carried a sarcastic and rude tone.

"Just trying to help, kid." He replied mildly as he pulled himself up to his feet and helped me up too.

"Don't call me kid and I don't need any help." I shot back angrily. He just pointed back up to the tree line with a blank expression. I narrowed my eyes at him.

Whether it was because of his fame or because of his arrogance, I wasn't sure, but it didn't matter because either way I hated him. I had met him once before and he just completely rubbed me the wrong way, and I never could figure out why.

"Sure you don't need any help?" He asked.

"Positive." I snapped back.

"All you need is to-" He began.

"Look, you don't know a damn thing about hover boards." I told him firmly as I stepped back wards onto my board that had been waiting patiently at ankle height.

"I don't, do I?" He asked sarcastically.

"No." I answered as I snapped to make the hoverboard rise until I was eye level with him.

"Kind of hard to tell that about a person when you've known them for five minutes." He shot back arrogantly. I could tell by his expression he was getting seriously annoyed at this point. This was the first time I ever remembered him looking something other than stoic.

"I-" I opened my mouth to reply when I got a ping. "Hang on; ping."

I let my eye screen overlay my vision and block Han out for a second. It was extremely rude to do that while talking to someone, but I didn't care. I quickly found a ping from my oldest brother Kaede. It told me to skip class and meet at Hayate's to check out a new mod.

I chewed my lip as I tried to decide if skipping class and missing the merits was really worth it, but then I realized that I probably wouldn't get to see both of my brothers together for a while. Decision made, I flexed my fingers to turn off my eye screen.

Han's pretty face was staring back at me with raised eyebrows. His surge seemed so natural on him, that you didn't really think about him having the surge. He had the full lips of a pretty along with the symmetrical features and high cheekbones, but his jaw seemed to be a lot wider than most people went for. It didn't really matter though; he could pull it off.

"I have to go." I told him flatly.

"Important business." He supplied.

"Oh, very." I replied sarcastically.

"Deals to discuss. Plots to plan." He continued sarcastically.

"Absolutely." I responded. His lips turned up in a smirk.

"Watch for pedestrians." He joked.

"Pedestrians shouldn't be in the park at sunrise." I stated flatly.

"You're right; It was my fault for walking home." He replied as he shook his head.

"Should've hover boarded." I yelled to him as I took off with my hovercam in tow.

Z

"That was a colossal waste of my morning." I deadpanned to Hayate who was laid back in his favorite chair.

"Why does he get so exited about every little thing?" Hayate asked me.

"I don't know, but it's annoying." I replied as I attempted to make myself comfortable on the couch.

"Maybe we just don't see it, because 'everything but the worthless gossip that comes across the feeds is above us'." Hayate quoted sarcastically. I chuckled.

Kaede had come up with a mod for a hovercam that failed to impress either of us. Obviously disappointed by the lack of response, he launched into a tirade at us. When we refused to react to that with something besides sarcasm, he let in a huff.

"Why is he messing around with hover cams anyway?" I asked Hayate. "He usually sticks to more important stuff."

"He's trying to get an invite to a huge tech head bash coming up in a week. Invites go to people with high face ranks; the non boring people with high face ranks, at least." He replied lazily.

"And he's one of the boring ones." I supplied. Hayate nodded.

"No one wants to listen to him blabber on about mathematical equations. The people there are all my kind of tech-head." He told me bluntly as he sat up in his chair.

I loved Kaede, but I had to agree that he was a pain to be around. He was one of those people that had no idea he was boring everyone within earshot. I was a lot more like Hayate; I knew a thing or two about circuits and wiring, but I didn't obsess over them.

"Room, display the top Crims." He commanded lazily to the room. His large wall screen pulled up the members of his clique.

It was named after the clique Tally Youngblood was in as a pretty before the mindrain. Almost every one in it was a tech head , but they didn't flaunt it like Kaede did. Second from the top of the list I noticed Han's picture; Hayate was fourth.

"Why do you obsess over this so much?" I asked Hayate hesitantly. He always checked his spot in the clique every morning. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Fame is everything." He shot back.

"Fame is everything? Really? It's wonderful and all, but there's a lot more to life than that." I remarked. He laughed sarcastically.

"Rin, the only reason you say that is because you're face ranks hovering around 350,000 right now." He sneered back. Fury spread through me like a Rusty wildfire.

"No, it's not. How many people are in the top thousand because everyone hates them? All they have is their face rank; no friends and no one to talk to." I snapped back.

"They're still sitting in their big mansions with their disposable clothes from the hole in the wall," He gestured to my dorm uniform. "watching their face rank climb."

"That's nice, but it doesn't change the fact they're miserable." I reminded.

"You'll never understand this; you're an extra after all." He spat.

"Oh, I'm not the city's source of gossip, so I can't understand the world of the rich and famous." I snapped sarcastically. "You're so shallow, you only see people as a number."

"If I was shallow, then I wouldn't be talking to someone like you." He retorted

"Someone like me." I repeated.

"Extra." He filled in.

"So that's why you don't speak to me in public; you don't want to be seen with an extra. Even if she is your own sister! Shallow bastard." I shrieked back.

"You wouldn't fit in with my people. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." He tried to recover.

"You're people?" I scoffed. "If I really wanted to, I could have an invite to the same bashes you do." I yelled as I stood up off the couch to leave.

"You know there's a way to prove it?" He said slyly. I knew I shouldn't have taken the bait, but I was so angry I wasn't about to back down from his challenge.

"Enlighten me." I snapped as I stomped over to the door.

"The tech head bash a week from today. You get into that, I'll never say another word to you about this again." He said smugly. I turned to leae "Oh, and Rin." I paused. " When I say get in, I mean invited and not crashing."

"I'll be there." I shouted without looking back as the door slid shut behind me.

Once I was in the elevator, angry tears started to slip. I was absolutely furious.

I was also completely screwed. The bash was labeled as tech-head, but it was really more Crim. Getting in with the Crims involved a lot more than a high face rank; they were famous for being tricky as uglies and handfuls for the city to deal with as pretties.

There were several ways to get famous- new mods, kicking an attention grabbing story, slamming someone famous in a way that got a lot of attention-, but none of them would get me in as a Crim. I had to do something totally outrageous.

When the doors slid open at the bottom, as I stormed out and nearly slammed into Han. Again.

"We have to stop bumping into each other." He joked lightly.

"Yeah. Sorry about." I answered quietly. I was lying because I really didn't care about him, but I couldn't have a Crim on my bad side right now. "Goodbye." I muttered before he could reply.

I thought I heard him say something back, but I was way too distracted. I had to think of a way to get into the Crims.

Z

When I got back to my tiny dorm room, the numbers at the bottom of my wall screen announcing my face rank still held the same dismal number: 349, 172.

I sighed. There was no way I was getting into the bash unless it was at least 50,000, and even then I had to spark their interest; Kaede was a tech-head with a face rank hovering at 9,000 and he didn't have a prayer.

I spent the entire day laying on my bed staring at the ceiling trying to think of a fool proof way in. By the time the sun was starting to set, I still had nothing.

"Well, since sitting here isn't working, there's only one thing to do now." I thought out loud. "Time to go out and let the ideas come to me."

I rolled off my bed and pulled a bag out from underneath it. A river of gray silk spilled out on the bed when I turned the bag upside down. It was a reputation bomber's robe that I stole a long time ago. It was the perfect way into any bash; the hood hid your face, you were one of many there, and no one ever paid attention to you.

I scanned the feeds while I waited for it to get late enough to sneak out the window. I quickly found a tech head bash that a lot of fairly big face people would be attending. I wasn't sure exactly what I would do to get their attention, but these were the people to get noticed by.

"Good night, room." I said as I pulled the robe on and made myself comfortable on my pillows to wait.

"Good night." It responded automatically.

I was going to get invited to that bash and rub it in Hayate's face if it was the last thing I ever did.


	3. Chapter 3

Boys and girls pretend to know me, they try so hard,

And I get what I want my name is my credit card,

Don't try to hate me because I am so popular

The Veronicas

The bash swarmed with the crowd of famous tech-heads sprinkled throughout with surge monkey, neo foodies, random cliques and reputation bombers. I blended effortlessly with the random rabble of people. Unfortunately, I blended a little too well.

If I wanted to get in with the Crims, I had to stand out, and cowering in a group of real reputation bombers just wasn't cutting it. Being around the people I need to impress didn't make some magical plan to prove Hayate wrong materialize in front of me like I had hoped.

The only way I could think of to get in was to find a Crim to flirt with until he invite me as a date, but I was wearing a dorm uniform under my clothes and my classic pretty surge would be a little boring for most of the guys there. Causing some sort of scene would just make me look stupid. That left finding something to kick, but I had to be careful because a lot of the Crims thought they were above kickers. Egotistical bastards.

I left the group of reputation bombers and wandered over to someone who was running around with a tray of drinks. I snagged one and leaned against the wall to drink it. I noticed a hovercam drop from overhead to get a quick shot at me, probably wondering why I wasn't where I was supposed to be, before it zipped off to chase someone else.

I kept my spot against the wall for ten minutes, scanning the crowd, before I saw the people I had been hoping to see all night. Han was walking through the party with a tall, very pretty girl stuck to one of his sides. He was ignoring her to talk to his best friend Takashi who was walking on his other side with Morimoto, Hayate, and a few of the Crims in tow.

If I somehow managed to get on their good side, then I'd have a better shot. Using Han was not going to be an option; I did rudely slam him into the sidewalk. Takashi had a girlfriend, so that ruled him out unless I wanted to look desperate. That left Morimoto, Takashi's best friend, but with his reputation with girls, he wasn't exactly ideal.

I sighed. I knew better that to take the bait with Hayate, but I just had to prove him wrong. All I wanted to do was rub his nose it; I didn't care about the fame, and I didn't care about the invitation into the Crims. He was smart enough to pick something that would involve getting both of them.

I dumped the ice from my drink into my mouth and puffed my cheeks out to avoid the almost unbearable temperature. This whole night was completely pointless; it was almost dawn and I was no closer to getting into the Crims. Unable to take my frustrations out on the one person who deserved it, I started glaring at a hovercam that bobbed overhead.

I was so focused on glaring at the innocent hovercam as I thought of various things to kick that would humiliate my brother, that I missed the person next to me. I didn't notice them until they brushed part of my hood aside.

"Oh, don't you dare!" I snapped after I swallowed my ice and slapped their hand away. "Do not do that." I commanded. I glanced over to see Han standing beside me with two drinks.

"Thought that was you." He commented blankly.

"How?" I asked in confusion. I was completely covered by the long robe.

"You seem like the type to stand by yourself up against the wall at a huge tech head bash you're crashing." He answered pointedly.

"Look, you want me out, all you have to do is say so, but don't yank it off ." I replied as I fixed my hood back over my face.

"What brought you here?" He asked conversationally. I watched as a few hover cams dropped down to get a few shots of him. They hovered a the edge of his reputation bubble.

"My idiot brother." I admitted quietly.

"He invite you?" He asked lazily as he scanned the party.

"He knows how to make me angry." I answered cryptically. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged. "Look, sorry I was so awful earlier." I offered to change the subject. I was particularly happy about having to apologize, but if worst came to worst, then I might need him.

"Frustration does that to people." He dismissed mildly.

"Yeah, it does." We descended into an awkward silence as he finished his drink. "I think I've had enough of this party." I finally admitted.

"I would say I'd see you around, but I don't even know your name." He answered, looking at me expectantly.

"If you got in the Crims because of something other than your reputation with women and your pretty face, then you should be able to find that out, shouldn't you?" I asked sarcastically before slipping off into the crowd. Either he thought I was horrible, or he took that for an attempt at flirting; it was really the former, but maybe I could play it off as the latter if I needed to.

My shoulders sagged as I pushed my way through the crowd. I was completely screwed; the thought almost brought angry tears back in my eyes. I hated to see Hayate win at everything.

The cold night air cut straight through my gray silk robe the second I walked through the mansion's front door. I felt like I was a shadow as I slipped past the people standing around the front steps. Not one of them bothered to look away from whatever they were doing.

That was the definition of being Extra, I guess; walking around in the background while the famous people refused to take two seconds away from their lives to notice anyone else.

I glanced back to the mansion one last time over my shoulder to see Hayate walking out the doors surrounded by hovercams with two girls on each arm. Morimoto appeared next with two more. I rolled my eyes at my brother's behavior. I was sorely tempted to walk over and somehow screw it up for him, but then I remembered that I wasn't supposed to be there.

The realization made me panic because I knew lone reputation bombers were rare and me standing there staring would be a dead give away that I wasn't supposed to be there. I ducked around to the side of the building. I immediately collided with someone who shoved me backwards. Without the reflexes that I had developed from hover boarding, I would have landed flat on my butt.

"Watch it." A man's voice slurred out.

"You watch it." I shoved back without thinking. I glanced up to see the disgruntled face of none other than Takashi; the one person on the planet who would lock me out of the Crims and every other social event for life.

"You bit-" He started.

"Takashi, just leave her alone; you're drunk." Han cut him off. His voice stayed steady and level as if he was bringing up the weather instead of trying to pull his drunk friend out of a fight.

"Extra doesn't know her place." He sneered.

I watched as a hover cam spotted the argument and zoomed in on the three of us. They apparently used the side exit to avoid being followed like this. Another two soon joined it. Han followed my gaze to them as Takashi drunkenly ranted.

"I think I'd better get going." I muttered as I attempted to sidestep Takashi to get to my hoverboard, only for him grab my arms in an iron grip. Han reached to pull him off.

"You think you can disrespect me and then just walk away?" He snapped with an evil chuckle.

Now I was scared, and let it be noted, that it takes a lot to get Rin Nakamura scared.

"I just-" I stuttered helplessly.

"You what?" He sneered. I stared feeling out around me with my toe, hoping I would find the metal of my hoverboard.

"I-I-." I continued trying to think of something to say. My foot found the solid metal of the hoverboard, and I could have cried in relief.

'Takashi, she's just a kid." Han reminded. Takashi's eyes cut away from me to Han, and I snapped for the hoverboard to rise, hoping I could get away while he was distracted.

The hoverboard jerked upward, and I soon discovered that Takashi's toes were resting on the side away from me. He let go of my arms as he was flung off balance. I stepped completely on the hoverboard before I shot up, completely out of his reach. I noticed that Han was smirking at the scene unfolding in front of him, as were a few of the people watching the vids on the feeds being sent out by the fifty hover cams that now surrounded us.

"Should've let me walk." I taunted, suddenly feeling braver now that he was on the ground, and I was safely in the air.

"You think you're tough just because you got away from me on your hoverboard?" He yelled upward before he let out a barking laugh. The people starting to show up after seeing it on the feed laughed with him as the tried to sneak closer to the argument. Han completely ignored the girls that slid up next to him as he watched everything unfold with an amused smirk.

"If you want to see how tough I am, why don't you come up here and get me?" I yelled down cockily. He laughed again as his girlfriend Neela grabbed one of his arms and tried to pull him away.

"I might have been out of the game for a while, but I'm still the best there is." He replied, earning a cheer from the surrounding crowd.

I shifted my weight nervously as much as possible without rocking the board. There must have been more to the Crims than I thought, because all I knew was they were a partying clique who were supposed to be tech heads. I had never actually heard of one doing something that involved being a criminal, or technology.

"Prove it." I barked back.

"Six days from now, the day before the Crim bash, meet back here with your little city toy," He gestured to my board. A few of the other guys started chuckling. "I'll show you what real hover boarding is."

"How exactly do you plan to do that? Looks to me like you're stuck on the ground." I yelled back. I heard a few gasps and chuckles run through our growing audience.

"Race me and find out." He shot back. "Third party decides the course, neither of us know until we meet here. Hovercams keep track to make sure no one tries to chicken out on some of the obstacles." He named his terms.

"Done." I replied without thinking before I shot off.

Z

I skipped the sunrise to get some much needed sleep.

When I woke up, the feeds were plastered with images of me in my long silk robe hovering over everyone like a ghost. No one got a shot at my face, recognized my voice, or had any clue who I might be. I stared in awe at the fame I had accumulated overnight; my face rank had topped 100,000 from some of the nick names people had given me.

I immediately put the new wall allowances to use and got myself some new disposable clothes from the hole in the wall, along with a pair of sunglasses to help with light and wind when I hover boarded.

When I was done getting what I wanted, I started scanned through the feeds to see if people had figured out it was me because of the face rank bump, but it turns out I wasn't the only one this little incident shot into the spotlight.

Everyone had an idea of who it was in the robe; most of the people were hover ball players, or bad asses like Takashi thought he was, but several other girls that had siblings in the Crims actually made the list of prospects.

The list was too broad; there was no way anyone would be able to single me out. The realization brought me a little bit of relief; pissing off the leader of the Crims was not what I wanted to be known for.

I skipped my morning class-again- and spent my time scanning through the feeds. Most of the things about me were slamming; they all had the same theme of 'there was no way I could be that like Hayate'. I found that funny because I never knew Hayate was one to piss of big faces and dig himself into his own social grave in front of the entire city.

The weird thing about this whole situation was a lot of the people in the city didn't look at it that way. They saw the Bomber Girl challenging Takashi's reign of the city as bold and courageous. Many of them were rooting for her to win, or at least hoping she had a spot in the Crims her rebelliousness. I seriously doubted either of those were going to happen.

I soon went back to looking at the kicks speculating who it was under the hood. A few ego kickers had put vids up proclaiming they knew who it was. A few people that were know for hover boarding and hover ball flat out said they were the ones standing on the hover board in the robe. A lot of them were immediately discredited, but a few enjoyed a massive bump in face rank as their names were added to the growing list of possibilities.

Disgusted with the talk on the feeds, I started sorting through some of the pings I had gotten. I lazily told the room to arrange them by biggest face first. I was expecting Kaede and Hayate to be the top of the list, but one plain, unadorned ping took the very top spot.

It was from Han Lue, and it only contained two words:

Found you.


	4. Chapter 4

You either want to be with me or be me.

Maneater

Nelly Furtado

A light rain fell steadily outside my window. The conditions were horrible for hover boarding; the wind had been terrible, the rain- while no longer falling heavily-was enough to kill visibility, and an hour before, the sky had been almost constantly lit up with flashes of lightening,

That's why I was going to wait another fifteen minutes before going out to make sure the lightening was over for the night.

I couldn't afford to miss any practices. I was good, but I did have some weaknesses. I also still didn't know how good of a hover boarder Takashi was; I had to assume that he could handle anything thrown at him including hover boarding in the storm, and then prepare for the worst.

Another good thing about the storm was that it kept all of the hover cams away.

The people of the city had yet to stop wondering about the girl in the reputation bomber's robe. My name had thankfully been taken off the list when a girl named Airi Hamasaki, an extremely famous hover ball player, apparently started the rumor that she was the one to challenge Takashi. My face rank stopped climbing as people stopped talking about the Bomber Girl and moved on to Airi.

The way they were treating her was absolutely ridiculous. People would do anything to get close to her; all the people wanted to hear was about Airi. Nothing was kicked on the feeds that didn't have something to do with her. Guys were all over the feeds claiming to be dating her. Girls were claiming they had been best friends at some point in life: littlie, ugly, pretty, former clique, hover ball team, you name it. The whole city had stopped functioning because it was so obsessed with her.

I was a little glad I was fading back into the woodwork, but I wasn't sure if I was glad to be losing my fame to her.

She was the embodiment of all the things I hated in a famous person; she was arrogant, conniving, and cruel. Every interview I had ever seen from her left a bad taste in my mouth; she always made the perfect jokes, the statements everyone wanted to here, and gave the perfect illusion of being a badass, but an overall good person. Even though she balanced it very well, everyone knew that was nothing but an act, though; especially when rival players that made bad comments about her would wind up having to be taken to the hospital afterwards.

Her aggressive personality was a bit of a crowd favorite, further pushing her into fame. But that wasn't enough for her; she always found ways to advance her face rank by perfectly timed little publicity ploys that most people wouldn't see as calculated. My years of being around Kaede and Hayate had taught me how to look for that.

The people were actually excited about the matchup; Takashi had even kicked a statement saying that he was looking forward to the challenge. I wasn't shocked he couldn't tell he was talking to under that reputation bomber's robe, especially considering how drunk he was; but what did shock me was the fact my idiot brothers didn't have a clue it was me. The only other person in the entire city who really knew was Han.

"Good night room." I called. I watched the wall screen dim to black as the room gave its usual reply.

I unfolded my legs on my bed, and started running my hands across my sheets. After finding my new jacket, I pulled it on before putting my dorm jacket on top. The extra layer locked in a lot of warmth that the thin silk of my dorm jacket let out. I was hoping it was also help keep out some of the water. I blindly yanked open a drawer and started searching for the glasses I got to at least block part of the rain. I put them on my face and flicked the switch to make them clear. Or at least, I hoped I did; I'd find out when I made it outside.

I slid out of bed grabbed my hover board from its hiding place. The sound of the rain spilled into the room when I pushed my window open. I hesitated at the door; this really might not be such a good idea.

Neither was pissing off the leader of the most exclusive clique in the city. I reminded myself. Knowing I'd talk myself out of it if I didn't go then, I set my feet on my hover board and snapped for it to rise.

"Follow me out." I ordered to my hover cam as I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head. It rose from its place and floated gracefully out the window, waiting for me to follow.

The rain physically hurt when I shot outside the window. Even though the rain was nothing more than a light drizzle, at the speed I was going it felt like I was being pelted by tiny rocks. My glasses weren't really helping that much, but it was better than getting the raindrops directly in my eyes.

Despite the pain from the rain, I pushed my board to its almost top speed. The water left the grippy surface of my hover board dangerously slick. I had many near accidents that I managed to save at the last second. The only way I could make it work without sliding off was to stay perfectly level and fly perfectly straight; any sort of weight shift or banking attempt sent me scrambling for my footing.

I kept the straight line going until I got towards the construction site at the edge of the city where I knew the grid would run out. I took several deep, steadying breaths as I tried to mentally picture myself taking the turn ahead. I watched my hover cam zip ahead to get a better shot of the curve; it might not have been this route with me before, but it knew my filming preferences enough to know how I wanted the shot to be.

Suddenly Han's little three second banking lesson came back to me. I shifted my feet a little closer to shoulder width apart as slowly and as fluidly as possible. I got nervous when my feet slid a little apart from the water, but I forced myself not to react. I took a deep steadying breath and slid them back where I wanted. When my feet where firmly planted in a place where I still had balance, but they weren't going to slide apart, I started moving for the turn.

I edged one hip down a little bit, and the minute shift in weight carried the board off to the left. I curled my toes in my left foot and turned them slightly outwards. The surface of the board tilted to a tiny angle and banked perfectly off in the direction I needed. When the curve had brought me back to the place I wanted to be, I just slowly uncurled my toes back to the normal and slid my foot back to the front. I eased the weight off my hip and the board went back to flying straight. It really was an almost perfect turn. The angle my board tilted probably wasn't as steep as it needed to be, but it worked so much better than what I had been doing.

I followed the edge of the grid away from the construction site, along the woods. This route carried me towards a few of the big face mansions, and towards a few parks. I didn't really expect anyone to be out this late in the rain, but I did know of a party in one of the mansions; my luck someone would be walking away from the party and see me. The thought of getting caught made me nervous.

I had already screwed my chances of getting my brother back after our fight; I really didn't want to add to that humiliation by being one of the famously hated people in the city I brought up in the fight with Hayate.

Just as the lights of the big face mansions were getting too bright for comfort, I noticed a stream running through one of the parks. A crazy idea forming in my head, I pulled up to stop just above it.

Hover boards worked of magnets. Magnets needed metal. Water carried metal that it scraped off of rocks, which this stream contained a lot of. Therefore, the hover board should be able to work over the water. Right?

Probably, but the issue was, what if there wasn't enough for the lifters to run on? The stream wasn't that big, and it went straight up the mountain. The city grid didn't extend much further beyond the reach of the park, so I was stuck with only the stream to keep me in the air. If I ran out of metal at a high speed I was in trouble; my crash bracelets wouldn't work and my very heavy hover board would crash straight into the freezing cold, rock filled river that was already swollen from the spring rain water draining from further up the mountain. No one knew where I was, and I had never even heard of anyone who ever hover boarded through a stream or up the mountain besides a few trash talkers who were obviously lying, so that is the one place no one would think to look.

I heard yelling from the other side of the park. My spine went board straight like a mouse that got caught in a hawk's shadow. It sounded like a group of drunk guys and a few giggling girls, obviously just leaving a party.

"Stream it is." I muttered to myself as I shot forward along the water. I glanced back to make sure my hover cam was following me.

I stopped when I was just out of sight of the park and looked around me in awe; the woods were a lot scarier than I was expecting. The trees were nothing like the park trees I was used to practicing around; they were dark, bigger than anything that was allowed to grown in the city limits, and their overgrown foliage was with nocturnal creatures scurrying around their branches that picked up on my infrared. The trees were so thick they blocked out a lot of the raindrops. They seemed to go on forever in every direction. I started to get nervous because of the vastness of what was outside the city. This was my first time outside of the city.

I flexed my fingers and my eye screen overlaid my vision. I had only been outside an hour and still had many more to go. I had gotten cocky about not getting seen because of the rain and left way too early; I'd have to remember that for tomorrow night. Assuming I made it out of the woods by tomorrow night.

Deciding I might as well make the best of my time outside, I took off above the stream.

The first twenty minutes I was sure I was going to die. The water kept splashing up on the riding surface of my already slick hover board, and I just knew it was going to slide straight off and onto the rocks. The stream also had several random curves and steep grades where it would be flowing down a hill. I would think I had it figured out, right before it would twist in a direction I hadn't been expecting or a giant rock would block my path.

After the first twenty minutes, I began to appreciate the curveballs the wild through me; I needed to be able to handle anything anybody threw at me, and this was the perfect training tool for being prepared for anything. It was also a massive confidence boost that I wasn't doing half bad along the stream. I couldn't believe I was actually having fun.

It felt refreshing to be so far away from everything; I could've done without the icy-making temperature of the water though. That wasn't refreshing at all.

I was almost ready to turn around when the worst happened. I shot up an incline to the place where a waterfall emptied into a pool. I had head the loud rush of water, but just assumed there were just more rocks that it was traveling over. I really needed to get out of the city more.

The pool was deeper than any part I had encountered before. With the excess rain water, it was so turbulent and overflowing that the lifters had nothing to catch on. When I shot over the top of the incline, the board dropped out from under me like a rock. The two, horror stricken seconds it took to meet the surface of the water felt like it was in slow motion.

The cold water knocked the air straight out of my lungs. I almost gulped in surprise, but some sort of survival instinct kicked in and made me shut my mouth to keep the water out. I floundered helplessly in the water as the current from the waterfall kept me swirling underwater. I finally got swept against a rock, which hit my shoulder. I almost gasped in pain, but before I could even get that out, I got swept into another rock. When I felt it knock against my leg, I forced a foot down on it and kicked up.

My head broke the surface of the water and I gulped in as much air as my burning lungs could hold. I almost go pulled off the rock, but I flailed my arms to get my balance and planted my other foot on it. I looked around frantically for a way to get myself out of the water. Keeping myself on the rock was taking a lot more energy than my sore, tired muscles were willing to give.

I saw the night lights of my hover cam across the pool. They looked shaky like it was trying to keep itself in the air while it tried to figure out where I went. Desperate to reach it, I kicked off the rock and paddled hard. My head almost dipped under the water several scary times, but I managed to keep myself afloat. The hover cam saw me and tried to move closer to me.

"No!" I yelled at it. Its flight halted. I kicked a few more times and made it to it. I wrapped an arm around the top of it and, confused about what I was doing, it pulled back towards the edge.

It wasn't until I was lying on the side of the pool on a rock that I realized exactly how cold I really was. I knew I wasn't a pleasant temperature, but I wasn't shaking to the point where I couldn't move before.

"Get this in your little hover cam brain; go find Han." I ordered the hover cam. "Han Lue. You can't get in his reputation bubble, but get on the edge of it and try everything possible to get him to follow you. Bring him to me." It shot off through the woods in search of Han.

I brought up my eye screen and sent a ping to Han.

It read. You found me once; I really need you to do it again.

After it send I felt like an idiot; he probably got a hundred pings from random girls a day. Even if he did read it, he'd probably take that as one of the flirty comments other girls made to him and ignore it. All the same, I turned my locater on.

That gave me the idea to find Han, or at least see if anyone was in the park.

My heart sank when I found him; he was in the middle of a pleasure garden with Airi Hamasaki. I was going to freeze to death in the middle of the woods in a mountain.

This thought was almost enough to send me into a panic attack. I had force my breathing to remain calm, but it only worked for about four breathes. I knew I had hypothermia; the only thing I remembered to do for it was to get into dry clothes. I didn't have anything that wasn't soaked, so I was in trouble there.

I pulled myself to my feet and started moving down the hill. The least I could do was move closer to the city and closer to part of the stream that had enough metal to carry a hover board.

I was about halfway down when I tripped and slid the rest of the way. Unwilling to get up again, I curled up in a ball at the bottom of the slope. Thinking I might as well try to get rid of some of the layers of heavy wet clothes, I pulled off my dorm jacket. I started to pull off my new jacket, but then I changed my mind and shoved my hands in the pockets. My fingers found the dial to turn up an internal heater I didn't know I had.

I turned the dial all the way up. The batteries wouldn't last forever, but it was something until Han showed up. If he showed up.

I thought through the people I knew who could possibly find me. The only people I could think of were my brothers, but I knew chances were they would both think of it as a prank. I knew if I got a ping from them like that I definitely would.

I sighed and curled up further into a ball. I could ping the wardens, but I knew there was no way they'd take it seriously. What person goes hover boarding through the woods outside city limits in the middle of a spring shower?

My only hope was Han Lue.

Z

"Kid. Kid!" My eyes scrunched together as I tried to ignore the noise. I noticed I could barely breathe through my nose. A blinding light cut through my eye lids and my eyes popped open to see my hover cam flash its nightlights a second time.

"Rin!" My name finally cut through the fog on my brain. "Damn it, Rin! You have to get up."

"Huh?" I sort of choked out. Han yanked me up by one of my arms and started pulling off my jacket. I weakly tried to shake him off, but I felt so sick it was easier to not resist, so I went limp.

I started fighting him again when he tried to reach for my shirt. He huffed in annoyance, and told my hover cam to turn its night lights off. I wasn't any happier about it, but I let him pull my shirt over my head and replace it with a warm jacket. Apparently decided to leave my wet pants, he pulled me to my feet and half carried me to a waiting hover board.

"I can't stand long enough to ride double." I told him honestly as I used him for a prop.

"You'll have to get on my back then." He answered without missing a beat. He sounded like he had thought all of this through.

He dropped to his knees and pulled one of my arms over his shoulder. Hesitantly, I wrapped my other arm over his shoulder, wincing at the pain from my bruised shoulder, and leaned my weight on him. He leaned forward to stand and I automatically wrapped my legs around his waist. It was extremely awkward; I felt a little like I was going to pass out and that made me tighten my too long limbs around him. He didn't seem to be bothered as he stood, bearing my weight like I weighed nothing.

His movements seemed completely confident as he stepped onto the board. I thought he was going to take everything slow since I was clinging to his back like a spider monkey, but he leaned his weight forward and the board shot out like a rocket. Turns out Han did know a thing or two about hover boarding.


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay, so do you want to explain why you hover boarding miles in the rain miles outside the city seemed like a good idea?" Han asked as he brushed my hair aside and thoroughly coated my scraped shoulder with med spray. I winced at the sting. He pulled the blanket back over my shoulder to help ease the chills that were wracking my body and pushed my hair back where it was before.

"I need to be prepared for anything, don't I?" I answered without looking up from the countertop I was staring at. I sounded like I had a strange lisp because my nose was so stopped up.

I never thought I'd ever see how anyone with a bigger face rank than Hayate lived, but here I was sitting in Han's apartment. I had begged him to just leave me in the park to find my own way back to Akira Hall, but he wasn't having that. To keep the hover cams away from me, he made me ride double with him from the park to his mansion; it looked a lot less suspicious-making than if I was on his back, but I was still afraid we were going to get spotted. He pretty much told me that as long as we weren't doing something crazily not normal, no one was going to care he brought a girl home. I didn't make me feel better.

His apartment was several floors above Hayate's, near the top. It looked so much different than Hayate's; it was clean, decorated in warm colors, with a lighter colored hardwood floor. It looked so much more inviting.

"You know Airi's going to show up to race Takashi, don't you?" He asked casually. He lifted my hand and placed it on a sensor so the hole in the wall would know how many meds I needed.

I felt a cold, clammy sensation, and I wasn't sure why.

I should have been relieved. Even though I did enjoy the extra wall allowances I got when my face rank bumped, I didn't want to be famous; especially if it meant having my name attached to this situation. I would never be able to get away from that one mistake.

I'd lose my brothers; they might love me in some corner of their heart, but they loved fame and their status so much more. They'd never speak to me again, and with them gone, I'd be completely alone.

And yet, despite all of the reasons I had to be happy the egotistical bitch was taking my place, I was angry.

Hover boarding was what I did best. It was the only time I didn't have some reminder that I was family member that the others were embarrassed of. When I was flying, I didn't have to be the smartest of the most liked; I could fly circles around both of my older brothers.

"If I were you, I'd take a break and let Airi race Takashi." He continued as he set the cup of tea with meds in it in front of me. It looked kind of like mud.

"I'm not you." I muttered. That was one of the few statements I had made to Han that didn't carry sarcasm or disdain; it was just a simple truth.

"You're right; you didn't grow up the way Takashi and I did. While you spent your ugly days turning the trees in the park into a slalom course, the Crims were pulling some of the most insane stunts ever seen with a hover board. We were always giving the wardens a heart attack and a half because they were worried others would try some of the stuff we did." I swear that was the longest statement to come out of his mouth.

"But I have more to prove than he does." I replied shakily. I had no idea where that came from, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true.

Han scoffed. "He's got to protect the reputation he has built up over the years." He said it like there was nothing else that could compare to that. He sounded like Hayate.

"I don't want fame or reputation. I don't want to be remembered by the city for this kid who pulled some stupid stunt." I told him slowly. I wasn't sure if I was talking or my fever was. "I want respect. I'm tired of being nothing because I'm not the smartest or because I don't have a famous best friend."

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I have to go." I stated bluntly as I pulled the blanket away from my shoulders and turned to get out of my chair. This was becoming really uncomfortable. Han moved in front of me to block me with his body.

"You have a fever. You were laying in wet clothes in the middle of the woods alone for over an hour. If you didn't have that heated jacket; you would have died. You do understand that, don't you?" He asked as he pulled the blanket back over my shoulders. He picked up the mug and shoved it under my nosed until I took it from him and started drinking.

"Why did you ping me?" He asked after a long silence. I stopped trying to choke down the syrupy meds and tea to glance up at him.

"Do you really think my brothers would have come?" I asked before I went back to trying to drink the meds. It was too thick to be a liquid, so drinking wasn't exactly easy.

"Yes." He answered with finality as he snatched the cup from me, put it back under the spout and added more tea.

"The chance of Kaede looking up from whatever mod he was working on to check a ping was really close to zero. Even if he did, he had no way to get to me." I answered between gulps of tea. It tasted nasty, but it felt so much better on my sore throat.

"Hayate?" Han pressed.

"He's ashamed of me. That's what we were arguing about and that's what got me in this whole mess." I said.

"You've lost me." He commented as he took the chair next to me.

"I told him there was more to life than a number. He told me that someone like me could never understand; that I didn't belong with his people. I told him I could get an invite to a Crim bash. " I filled in quickly.

"So you pissed off their leader?" Amusement permeated his voice. I chuckled bitterly.

"Well, that wasn't my plan." I half joked. I still felt like I could fall over dead at any second from the cold I had gotten, but I was in a much better mood. I was either delirious with fever or the meds were too strong for me.

"What was your plan?" I went back to staring at the spot on the counter with a yawn.

"I didn't have one. I was hoping that if I went to where the people I needed to see where, than something would come to me." I answered honestly. I sounded really stupid when I said it out loud. I thought I heard Han chuckle.

"And what were you going to do if nothing ever happened?" It was meant to be a serious question, but I could clearly pick out the amusement in his voice.

"Then I'd do something completely, shame-makingly crazy and tricky as a publicity stunt. It'd probably never be crazy enough for the Crims, but I'd have to try." I answered honestly.

"Trying to get into the Crims is not for the faint hearted." He replied dryly.

"I don't want into the Crims." I told him slowly. "I just can't let him win this argument."

"You'd rather be dead than wrong." It was a statement instead of a question.

"I'm not wrong this time." I answered confidently.

"You're not. You have my personal invite." He told me. I felt his eyes boring into the side of my head as he waited for my reply. I knew I should have been grateful, but I wasn't.

"Thank you, but this is a little bigger than that now." I politely declined. I saw his eyebrows raise a tiny fraction. "I got myself into this because I was trying to take up for myself. Now I can't just let Takashi and Airi-" I trailed off, unsure of how to voice my feelings.

"You don't stand a chance." He told me honestly. "Takashi and Airi are two of the best."

"You're a little biased." I commented bitterly. His eyebrows shot up. "I know I probably can't beat them, but still; I have to try."

His lips pursed together in thought as he took in my statement. Without waiting for him to respond, I pulled the blanket off of my shoulders and refolded it before placing back on the counter. I put the mug back under the spout and filled it with cleaner before I took off his hover ball sweatshirt and put it on top of the folded blanket.

I felt his eyes follow me as cleaned up. He didn't try to stop me as I dragged myself out of the chair and started getting ready to leave. I knew this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, especially with the migraine behind my eyes and the aching of my muscles.

"I can make you good enough to hold your own." He finally spoke when I was almost to his door. My eyebrows shot up as I turned around to face him.

"In three days?" I asked in disbelief. He nodded.

"I saw part of the footage from the hover cam. You're not bad." He complimented.

"Thanks." I returned uncertainly.

"We'll start tomorrow. I know some places outside the city where the hover cams can't find us." He continued.

"Okay. Thank you for saving me." I turned back towards the door, only for him to clear the distance between us in a few long strides before I could reach it. He gently wrapped one hand around my bicep to keep me from walking off.

"I can't let you walk home after almost dying." He told me firmly. I glanced over my shoulders.

"I need a hover board." I reminded. "Hayate is the person I go to for that, and he's just a couple of floors down. I'll stay with him." Han's grip slowly loosened until he wasn't touching me at all anymore.

"One more thing." He called me back yet again after I had made another step to the door. I glanced back over my shoulder to see his eye screen layered across his vision. "Crim invite." He supplied as he blinked and the eye screen went away. I heard the ping in my ear.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hayate, open the door!" I yelled. I was swaying dangerously in the elevator. My head felt ridiculously heavy on my neck, despite the meds Han gave me. The longer I stood there, the dizzier I felt.

"Rin, it's the middle of the night!" His voice came over the speakers.

"You know I don't have time during the day." I shot back.

"You would've seen me during the day next Saturday when we visited mom and dad." He reminded. Aw, crap. Totally forgot. "What couldn't wait?"

"I need to borrow your old hover board. Kaede's going to show me how to wire one." I lied. I quickly sent a ping to Kaede asking him to work on a few mods so I could at least have him to back me up. I didn't think Hayate would put the pieces together and tell Takashi, but I wasn't going to take any chances.

"I can show you that." He responded, sounded offended.

"But Kaede-" I began. I was cut off by both Hayate's scoff as he began to mock him, and Kaede's ping say that he was in the middle of a break and I could come now if I wanted. I started grinning; Kaede might not have a lot of patience with me, but he loved trying to turn me into a tech head. It was very rare that he actually had time, though.

"I'll grab it and be gone." I interrupted. He sighed, and I started get very anxious. "Please, he's waiting on me!"

"Fine." He bit out grudgingly. The elevator dropped to his floor.

"Just wait and let me-" He began when he opened the door to his apartment. Completely ignoring him, I ducked under his arm and scurried in."-get it." He let out the breath he was holding in exasperation and slammed the door. I glanced back to see him run a hand through the long bangs that hung in front of the right side of his face. I knew he liked it because it came him a little of bit of a bad guy look when paired with his usual scowling expression, but I never understood how he saw where he was going.

"Still in the closet?" I asked as I shoved the doors open without waiting for a reply. He sighed deeply and pushed me to the side so he could reach to the top to pull it down.

"Why can't you use yours?" He asked with a grunt as he yanked it off the top shelf.

"Remember the last time I tried to learn a lesson about circuits on my own hover board?" I asked sarcastically.

I had accidentally messed with the lifters, which is a huge problem. Kaede made me fix it myself and I spent several painfully long weeks trapped in my dorm room at night while I tried to get it working again because I didn't have enough merits to get a newer, decent one. I was furious with Kaede, but I understood why he made me figure it out for myself when I eventually got it reprogrammed to be better than it was before. Proud that I now had a better understanding of technology, Kaede had surprised me with the faster hover board that now laid at the bottom of a mountain stream. Depending on how long it spent down there, it might be salvageable when the water level dropped, but I didn't have time to wait for that.

"No. I don't." He shot back.

"Well, it wasn't good." I replied in a snipped tone as I reached to grab the hover board from his hands that were lifted above his head. He was taller than me, and wouldn't let me get a hold of it.

"Does this have anything to do with our bet?" He asked suspiciously. I arched an eyebrow in a way I hoped he found convincing.

"Nope. I won yesterday." I jumped for the board he was holding aloft, but he rocked on his toes so the board was just above my fingertips.

"You didn't." He replied in shock.

"I did. No one in the clique knew you had a sister. Someone wanted to meet me." I lied. His eyebrows furrowed in disbelieve. "Give me the hover board! Kaede's waiting!"

"You're lying." He accused.

"I am not." I sounded a lot more confident than I felt. The words did loose a little power with the way my stopped up nose made them sound. His lips pressed together. "Look, I know you don't want anyone to know about me, so I'm not going to go to the bash. I just got the invite." I changed tactics.

He looked taken aback by that statement. His arms drooped a little bit and I gently started trying to tug the hover board out of his grasp. He let his arms drop down in front of him as he stared at me with his lips pressed together in thought and his forehead scrunched. His grip on the edge of the metal surface of the board only got tighter though.

"Kaede only takes short breaks when he's working on something; if I don't hurry, he won't have time to teach me tonight." I reminded as I tugged at the board in his hands. His expression darkened.

"Why do you always go to Kaede?" He asked harshly.

"He's always wanted to turn me into tech head and he loves it when I ask him for help." I answered in confusion. He was always teasing Kaede about opening himself up to torture when he did something like this with me. He and I couldn't do stuff like this together without trying to rip each other's throats out.

"Just give her the board." A familiar almost raspy voice ordered from the doorway. It didn't sound that different when it wasn't slurred with alcohol.

I glanced over my shoulder before I could stop myself. Takashi was sprawled on the couch in his party clothes with a drink in his hand. Two more were sitting on the table in front of him; probably Hayate's and another Crim's that had already left. He was staring at me with a practiced look of condescending boredom.

I felt myself pale slightly, but it was probably not very noticeable considerably my face was still slightly flushed with fever. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed him. I turned back to Hayate before I could stare like an idiot any more. I raised my eyebrows at him, hoping he would listen to Takashi.

"You're face is red." He teased. He swiped a hand out to mess with my hair like he did when I was little to torment me. He frowned the second his pinky brushed my forehead. I realized too late I should have tried to dodge; he didn't need to know how I got sick. I was much to tired to deal with him mocking me for not getting out of the rain or for falling in the stream.

"How long have you had a fever?" He asked sharply.

"'bout an hour?" I estimated. "I'm fine. It'll go down in no time." I snatched for the board, but even one handed his grip was too strong. He was now almost glaring at me.

"I think it's about time I left." Takashi commented from the other room, apparently sensing the tension between the two of us. I heard the glass clink on the table.

"No, stay." I looked over my shoulder at him. His eyebrows shot up. Apparently he wasn't used to having extras tell him what to do. "I'm leaving." I turned back to Hayate. "Give me the board."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Takashi." He called without looking away from me. Takashi passed with a nod to both of us before he strolled out the door.

"Why'd you do that? If you'd given me the board, I'd have been gone." I asked. He sighed.

"How did you get a fever anyway? Please tell me you weren't in the rain." He ignored my question. I didn't say anything. "That's so stupid! Your board's too fast for the rain; you're lucky you didn't slide backwards off of it when the top got wet."

"I'm okay," I reminded as I let my grasp on the hover board drop.

"Would you admit it if you weren't?" He shot back as he lifted the board back onto the top shelf. My heart sank; without that I was screwed.

"I am." I said again. He pinched the bridge of his nose to quell the coming head ache and stepped around me towards the couch. I stood on the point of my toes and tried to reach the board.

"Stop that and come over here." He ordered in frustration from the other room where he was watching the wall screen after I didn't come in myself after a few minutes. I sighed and sat on the other end of the couch. Flicking my eye screen back up, I pinged Kaede telling him I wouldn't make it tonight.

I chewed my lip in frustration. I was exhausted; the cold had sucked the energy out of my body and I felt like I could sleep for a year, but that wasn't optional. I needed to be working on mods for a hover board tonight, especially since Han was coaching me tomorrow.

"Why do you need my hover board so bad?" He asked. "You're good enough now that you won't mess anything up on yours. Wait, nothing happened to yours, right?" I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye and saw him completely immersed in the feed in front of him. I wondered if he was really listening for the answer. "It was you wasn't it?"

I glanced over at him in shock. "What?"

"I know your voice." He deadpanned. I put my face in my hands. I really didn't want to deal with this tonight.

"Yeah, it was." I answered shortly. I peeked through my fingers at him. His face looked tenser than I liked. "He'll never know it was me. No name, no face, and probably no victory. I'll be laughed at for a week, then everyone will be distracted by something else."

. "You still can't use my board; that' s too big a risk for me." He deadpanned. "You might screw yourself socially, but you won't do the same to me." I sighed.

"I can't use my own board." I admitted. "And whatever happened to 'there's no bad publicity as long as your in your mansion with your disposable clothes, blah.'" I misquoted snarkily.

"So, okay, I lied. And why can't you use your own board?" He almost whined.

"No time." He sighed.

"Even if you had a year to add mods to your hover board, he'd still beat you because he's a better rider." He reminded.

"You haven't seen me ride a hover board since I was an ugly." I retorted.

"Do I need to? The surge doesn't add coordination or grace." He replied arrogantly.

"I find help somewhere else." I stood to leave. I got dizzy about halfway up and had to cling to the arm of the couch to steady myself.

"You're staying here tonight." He ordered. "You can't fly like that."

"I walked." I replied stiffly before I prissed out the door, completely ignoring his protests.

Z

"Kaede, Hayate wouldn't let me borrow his board. Do you have one?" I was now braced in the corner of the elevator, hoping my eldest brother could at least help me.

"Yeah, it's a pretty good one." His voice came over the speakers as the elevator shot up to his floor.

When I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was the amount of wires and circuits scattered across the floor of the apartment. Kaede was in the middle of them, squinting at a piece of machinery I didn't recognize. He had one hand fisted in his close cropped hair in frustration, and I knew that meant he wasn't going to want to put up with me tonight and I was going to have to do most of the mods myself.

Kaede didn't look up from what he was doing, so I started to hunt for the board myself. I found it at the bottom of a pile of scrap hover cams and other things he used to work on when he was bored. My heart sank a little bit. It was big and would have a lot of power, but he had pulled a few of the inner parts out to use on other projects. It would take a lot of work to get it ready to race. I only had three days to go.

Z

"Why don't you understand this?" Kaede finally exploded in frustration. I was exhausted, almost too sick to keep my aching head up, and having a horribly difficult time trying to undo the damage he had done to the board. He had been so absorbed in his project, that he hardly took the time to answer questions, and when he did, he was snippy and aggravated when I didn't get it right the first time.

"This is the most complicated mod I've ever tried to do from scratch." I snapped back.

"Just leave it; the sun's almost up, we can do it tomorrow." He went back to working on whatever he was doing. I scrunched my forehead up, thinking that maybe there shouldn't be a we involving my brothers. It dawned on me that maybe he was being cryptic with his instructions on purpose. If Hayate took his head out of his butt long enough to realize it was me on the feeds, than so did Kaede. I got my answer a few minutes later when he muttered something about a 'cry for attention'. Neither of them seemed very happy about this upcoming race, and with the way they both obsessed over the numbers more than they would admit, I couldn't blame them. No one wanted to be famous because they were a laughing stock.

Ignoring his instruction, I finished the mod I was working on. As I worked, I couldn't help but think I made the right choice contacted Han.

"Don't try flying that until I look over you're work." He warned when he saw me getting ready to leave.

Of course I didn't listen. After making some scary changes with the way my board worked last time, I had done phenomenally well this time. Everything needed tweaking, but at least I was staying in the sky. As sick as I felt right then, that in itself was a small miracle.

The sun was just starting to rise when I reached my dorm building. I paused at my window, trying to decide if I wanted to watch the sun rise. Deciding I couldn't stay awake long enough, I jumped through my window and pulled in my board.

I practically threw myself onto the soft mattress, before I yanked the covers on top of me without bothering to undress. This had been one of the longest nights of my life. My eyelids were just drifting shut when I heard the ping in my ear. Sighing, I flexed my fingers and waited impatiently for my eye screen to pop up. It was Hayate, and he sounded very offended that I had left to go Kaede's. He sarcastically wished me luck getting home.

My fist was almost already curled to turn off my eye screen when a second ping came in. This one was from Han and it contained nothing but a place and a time. My lips pulled up in a grin. With his help and my new hover board, for the first time, it looked like I might actually be a contender.


	7. Chapter 7

"More to the right. There! Hold it. Don't lose it! Don't lose it!" I could practically here the pride in Han's voice as the smirk spread across my face. My muscles screamed from overuse as I tried to correctly balance my weight to accomplish a particularly difficult tight turn. A light laugh left my lips as stopped the board in front of Han, who was lounging on his board under a big tree.

"I got it." I whispered breathless; as if the fact that I had just expertly maneuvered myself through the most difficult obstacle course I had ever seen was going to go away if I said it out loud.

"The tight corners and the balance was all you needed to really work on; the straight lines you have down perfectly. You still need a lot of work, but I think you're about as good as you're going to get tonight. I'll teach you some of Takashi's tricks tomorrow." Han stated professionally, but I was imagining a tight smirk on his lips covered by the darkness.

"That's good, because I don't think I could take falling off one more time." I joked.

Without replying, he leaned further back on his elbows and gazed up at the stars.

I tugged nervously on the sleeve of my dorm jacket when he didn't respond. I felt like a littlie waiting to be dismissed by a teacher. Han wasn't as scary as most of the Crims, but he was still easily intimidating. While most of they had surges or clothing choices to a least make them more frightening than they were, it was just Han's attitude; I think I could be intimidated by him if he were an ugly.

"How old is Hayate's board?" Han asked without looking away from the sky.

"Hayate knows I was the one that challenged Takashi; he wouldn't give me his." I answered quietly.

"Why?"

"To preserve his precious face rank. He didn't want anyone to know he helped me." I muttered bitterly. "I stole this one from Kaede and got him to help me do the mods, but he was especially frustrated with me so I think he didn't want people to know he helped me either."

"Did you tell Hayate you were going to Kaede for help with the mods?" I frowned at the seemingly innocent question.

"Yeah, why?" I put my arms out and let the wind pull me away from him like a sail.

"He's jealous of the way you idolize Kaede." He answered simply. I almost fell off my board.

"He hates me!" I reminded. Han snorted.

"He hates that someone else has your undivided attention. He's doesn't like to be second place." He explained in a bored tone.

"Than life in the Crims must be absolute hell." I quipped quickly. I didn't exactly agree with Han, but his assessment of Hayate's personality wasn't exactly far off.

"It didn't used to be. Things have changed a lot since the reputation economy." Han replied. His voice sounded far off. I had never heard Han mention anything even remotely personal like that. I floated over in front of him and sat down on my board.

"What was it like when you were ugly?" I asked straightforwardly. I watched Han's Adam's apple bob with a swallow before his chin tilted down. He focused his dark eyes on me for a moment before answering.

"We had something to challenge. There were rules, we were monitored, and we had a deadline to make our mark." He sounded very frustrated. "We wanted to make the best of our ugly years before we went on to endless bashes and champagne."

"You could still pull some of the same tricks now." I suggested lamely.

"For what? Now it'd be nothing but a publicity stunt. When it gets broadcast to the entire city, we gain face points, new followers, and attention from the wardens, but that makes it so—"

"Worthless." I filled in. He nodded. "That's why I hate the reputation economy; it takes away the meaning of things. Now people calculate every action so they can be famous. Nothing's real anymore."

We sat in a companionable silence for a while, listening to the crickets. I wrapped my jacket tighter around me as the wind slipped through the trees. It carried a nice, earthy pine scent that really liked. Han was leaning back on his board staring at the stars. Deciding I wanted to see exactly what was so amazing, I leaned back against my board.

I was shocked by how beautiful they were. As much time as I spent in the sky, I hadn't really paid them any attention, but after seeing them out here without the city lights to dull them, I wasn't going to be able to look away.

"I want to show you something." Han broke the silence after a little while.

"What?" I asked, broken out of deep thought.

"Come on."

Z

"Where are we?" I asked as Han slowed to an almost stop so I could fly beside him.

"You'll see." He replied as he shot off again. With a laugh, I followed after him.

We raced through the trees for a long time. I was hesitant to fly at top speed after my dip in the waterfall, but Han wasn't. He bent his knees to drop closer to the board and leaned forward into the wind. He wove through the trees like he knew this place. It wouldn't surprise me if he came out here to get away from the cameras.

An ancient ruin of what was probably once a temple came into view beside a stream. I hovered above it as I took in the crumbing steps and concrete floors. Pieces of the walls and ceilings were still intact, but it was mostly just a crumbling skeleton. Han landed on the bank of a stream and stepped off his board. He motioned for me to join him on the ground.

"We found this place years ago. This is where the Crims used to have their meetings to plans the next trick." He told me as he led me down up the steps into the building.

"How far is this from the city?" I asked as he put his hand on the middle of my back and pushed me down another hall.

"About an hour." He replied. We fell silent until we reached an overgrown garden. He sat down on some steps that were still pretty intact and pulled me down with him.

He let his arm drape across my shoulders. Not knowing what else to do, I laid my head against him. Before I realized what had happened, his lips were on mine. I returned his kiss greedily as he moved to pull me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck and felt his hands on my waist, pulling me towards him until I was in his lap, straddling him. I started getting uncomfortable when his lips moved to my neck and his hands started roaming. I realized I need to stop him now before he pushed to go further.

"Han." I pushed back against him. He didn't stop. "Han. Stop!" He let the tip of his nose trail along my neck until he got to my ear.

"Why?" He asked sultrily.

"I want to stop." I answered. He sighed in annoyance and let me go so I could get off him.

"I shouldn't have brought you here." He muttered.

"I'm one of your best friend's little sister; it's an awful idea." I agreed as I stood and moved away from him. I felt really used. I should have known that his offer would have strings. Maybe he wasn't different from the rest of them after all.

I started walking back towards my hover board without waiting on him to reply. I heard his feet scrape in the rubble as he pulled himself up and followed me.

"Rin." He grabbed my arm. "I'didn't—"

"Didn't what?" I asked after he trailed off. I was so embarrassed that I naively let him drag me out there. I was the one that always said people planned their actions so they could get something in return.

"I'm sorry. I'm used to the other wannabe Crim girls." He apologized. Anger flared up in my chest and I yanked my arm away.

"I am not one of those girls. I thought I'd made that clear." I snapped.

"You aren't that different." He pointed out.

"You don't know me." I reminded. He looked down and pressed his lips together; it was clear he thought he did, but didn't want to fuel the fight. "Thank you for your help, but I'm going to do this on mine own." I added professionally, even though I was seething inside. I definitely didn't feel like being the bigger person, but he did save my ass.

"You don't stand a chance." He told me bluntly.

"That's not your concern." I spun on my heels and stalked towards my hoverboard.

Z

Tears of absolute fury burned my eyes as threw myself on my dorm bed. I knew better than to trust a Crim; they were all nothing but conniving bastards.

I sighed and forced my face into the comforter. I hated all Crims. I was going to shame Takashi so bad he would never be able to show his face again. Having their fearless leader get his name dragged through the mud should be enough to hurt the other Crims. I almost chuckled at the thought of Hayate losing face rank.

I let my head turn to the side and caught a glimpse of the foot high numbers displayed in the corner. They were at least 4,000 higher than when I left.

"Room, pull up the feed." I snapped.

The first think to fill my vision was Airi's face.

"Play it." I said with a sigh.

"Speculations have been flying about who challenged the city's reigning king," I rolled my eyes at the narrator; that nickname was the last thing Takashi needed. "I think it's about time they stopped." Images of Airi's hoverball games game up along with the clip where she was joking about having a few too many and challenging Takashi.

"I mean really people? Yuuki Tsukino? Mitsuko Minami?" I grimaced at the scoff in his voice. Both of those girls had Crim brothers like me. "I think the worst of all is Rin Nakamura." A clip of me being told to leave a party by Hayate because I was an Ugly played.

My jaw dropped as the narrator slammed me. Various big faces popped up adding in to the discussion for their three minutes of fame. Then Airi popped up. She painted herself like she was defending me, but cutting remarks towards me kept slipping out.

"And what are your thoughts about her and Han?" A clip of Han and me leaving the woods together played. I looked drunk because I was shaking so hard from the cold.

Airi forced a laugh. "If she did get with Han, then she's just one of many girls that got a little cocky over a face rank bump and went for one of the big dogs. He just took her because she was a sure thing. I don't think that's what happened though; Han never goes for someone with that much of a face rank difference. I know from Hayate that she is the extremely awkward and an extra for a reason." She half sneered.

"No wonder the Nakamura brothers are so ashamed of her." The narrator finished.

Angry, hurt tears spilled over. Slam feeds just like this got kicked all the time. Everyone knew my brothers wouldn't associate with me because I was extra; it was only a matter of time before one got kicked of me. It hurt so much to hear other people say it though.

As I sat there glaring at Airi's face, I promised myself I was going to shame her so bad she wouldn't be able to walk around in public again.


	8. Chapter 8

I glared at the wall screen as my feed swarmed with comments on the video someone kicked of me. Every once in a while, angry tears would fill up my eyes and my vision would be distorted.

I had received pings from both of my brothers and my parents apologizing and trying to give me advice on how to deal with this, but I had ignored everything. Han hadn't even bothered trying to make contact with me at all.

I was furious with all of them. I didn't want to be thrown into the spotlight. I'd seen people get ripped apart over the feed and I had always been terrified of that being me. Now that it had happened, I realized I had been right to be terrified. Everyone had something to say so they could get their fifteen minutes.

My wall screen beeped to tell me I had an incoming ping and I sighed. I almost told the room to ignore it, but then I saw who it was. I groaned and ran my hands through my horribly messed up hair.

"Fine. Answer it, I guess." I responded grudgingly.

"Hey." Han's voice came over the speakers. For the first time, he sounded unsure.

"What do you want, Han?" I asked. I almost sighed in relief when my voice didn't quiver.

"The meeting place for the race is Nana Love's mansion. With your face rank you can probably get in, but you will not be welcome there." He told me quietly.

I pursed my lips as I thought about what I was going to do. Airi wasn't going to back away from the race, and Takashi wasn't going to tolerate being challenged by an extra. The smart thing to do was to back out and let them work it out among themselves. But if I did that, then she would win.

"Rin?" Han asked hesitantly.

"I'm still here." I replied half-heartedly.

"Deciding to not to race is your smartest move, but if you do, just know I'm cheering for you." He told me before he ended the ping. Despite my every effort to hate him, my lips twitched up in a smile.

Z

"Rin!" Someone yelled. My head jerked up from where I had been laying face first in my comforter. The first thing my eyes managed to focus on was Hayate standing in my doorway.

"How did you even get in here?" I asked sleepily. He rolled his eyes.

"Never mind that. Who does this bitch think she is?" He snapped as he gestured to the wall screen.

"The twentieth most popular person in the city?" I guessed sarcastically. He growled in response.

"Aren't you going to do something to respond?" He asked.

"You know that'll only feed the flames." I told him. He sighed and swatted his long bangs out of his face.

"What are you going to do about the race?" He asked me seriously.

"I don't know." I told him honestly.

"Surely you aren't thinking about going." He deadpanned. "That would ruin you forever." When my expression didn't change he set his jaw angrily. "You can't be serious."

"I don't want to let them win." I told him. He scoffed.

"You're going to be an outcast forever. Do you know what this'll do to your reputation?" He snapped.

"What'll do to mine or to yours?" I asked. He froze. "You already have the burden of being saddled with a socially awkward extra sister that everyone in the family is too ashamed of to associate with." I bit out as anger built in my chest.

"You actually believe that?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't I? You've always been embarrassed of me; it's not too much of a stretch to believe you told other people you were." I spat out. He looked dejected.

"Rin, I'm not—" He started.

"You are; ever since your face rank dipped below 100,000 and you moved into your new mansion. You haven't wanted to deal with me, and guess what? I haven't wanted to deal with you either. I don't deserve any of that, Hayate." My voice wavered and I cringed. I glanced up at Hayate to see if he noticed. He looked like had slapped him.

"Rin—" He began again.

"No. You don't get to talk." I interrupted. "I'm tired of it. All you and Kaede ever do is worry about how I affect your face rank. Both of you have done everything possible to keep me away from you unless you needed something. I couldn't even call either of you when I thought I was going to die because I knew you wouldn't come. I had to rely on a complete stranger." My voice cracked.

He opened his mouth to defend himself, but I cut him off again.

"I think you should leave, and I don't either of you should come back." I blurted before I could start crying in front of him. My eyes started burning with unshed tears and his outline started to blur as my eyes filled up. He noticed and took a step towards me but I shook my head at him. He sighed and walked out the door without a word.

I couldn't stop the tears that started flowing as I stared at the door. I finally gave up, buried my face in the comforter, and let them fall.

Z

The feed didn't get any less dismal after I woke up from crying myself out. I finally had to turn it off to preserve my sanity. That lasted for an entire hour. I had to turn it back on when my face rank started rising even more quickly than before. Everyone was buzzing like a kicked beehive about something involving my brothers.

"Room, pull up my feed." I told it breathlessly. Two stories kicked by Kaede and Hayate were at the top of my feed. "Open Hayate's." I told the room.

"What are you doing?" My fifteen year old self asked the hover cam as she sprawled in an arm chair at our parents' house.

"I'm interviewing you; I get to ask the questions." A newly un-brain damaged Hayate hissed. I shook my head at him and took another sip of my tea.

"Can't you interview Kaede? I'm eating." I asked as I gestured to the plate in my lap.

"And what do you expect the reputation economy to bring?" He ignored my question.

"A bunch of former bubble heads with hover cams that film every random thing they can find?" I deadpanned. Hayate snorted.

"There is that. Are you going to be one of the kickers with a hover cam?" He questioned me.

"I don't know." I answered unsurely. I still looked really confused as to why there was a hover cam in my face. My eyes strayed over to Hayate questioningly.

"Look at the hover cam." He hissed like he thought the hover cam wouldn't hear him. My ugly self obeyed. "Want me to tell you what I think is going to happen now, first?" He asked, apparently realizing I wasn't going to answer. I gestured for him to go ahead.

"Kaede is going to be a famous tech-head, I'm going to be famous for my gorgeous looks, my way with ladies, and my hover boarding, and you'll be a famous athlete. I'm going to have a massive mansion and, because you're the level headed one, you're going to have to live with me to make sure I don't get too crazy." He told me in a teasing manner. I chuckled at him.

"I wish that were the way it worked out, but I have a feeling things are going to be very different." I told him thoughtfully.

"How?" He asked.

"You don't think you're going to be different when you're famous?" I asked him slowly.

"No. You're my baby sister." He commented like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "By the way, I'm also keeping this clip so I can remind boys of that once you're pretty and famous and everyone wants you." He added as an afterthought. I shook my head at him.

"I don't think it's going to be like that. It's going to be a massive competition to get on top and stay on top. Everyone's going to be doing everything possible to get a few minutes of fame." I told him seriously.

"And what do you think about that?" He asked in a fake serious interview voice.

"I think you're going to be able to see a lot of people's true selves when they're trying to get ahead of everyone else." I answered honestly.

"Is that a bad thing?" He pressed.

"Sometimes. When someone does something they regret it's going to be forever immortalized on the feeds. They're going to have live with what they did or what they said for a long time. It's hard to get a second chance when everyone likes reminding them they messed up."

The story ended right there. No narration, no comments.

I didn't know what to think. I had never felt so grateful for him.

The old interview Hayate did when he was half drunk was a better apology than anything he could have said with words. The Crims were going to humiliate him for months for his twenty minutes of goofiness caught on camera and he would lose a lot of fans that loved him for his surly emotionlessness. The statement I made reflected badly on him and whoever was slamming me.

"Room, play Kaede's."

Kaede's was different, but it still said the same thing. I was sitting beside him as he demonstrated one of his new mods. It was a piece of footage that was left out of the finish project because something went wrong and he had to adjust some things. We had a short conversation where he was teasing me about creating mods for my hover boards and hover ball suits when I was a famous athlete, obviously joking about Hayate's interview. At one point he promised me that he'd never be too busy or to famous for me.

The clips meant a lot to me. I would never forget that they had done this for me.

I was still marveling at the way they embarrassed themselves for me when a new video was kicked to my feed. I grimaced when I saw the same name as the guy that kicked the story that started all of this.

"Two major topics have been blowing up the feeds tonight." He began as his surged face filled up the wall screen. I sneered at him at a little. "The first one is the Nakamura brothers. The two have come to the rescue of their baby sister. Sort of. I'm not really sure what their strategy was because all they really managed to do was look like assholes and show us an inside look at the siblings when they actually loved each other." He snorted.

"The next topic is tomorrow night's race. I think we're all looking forward to seeing the best male and female hover boarders of our time up against each other in a grueling race. There were concerns that the wardens were going to break up this event, but with the mass popularity it has gained, they've agreed to it as long as good sportsmanship was applied." He paused." I think we all know that won't happen."

I raised an eyebrow. I knew Airi was evil in sporting events, but how bad was Takashi?

"I am the only one kicking the race, so if you aren't invited, come back to my feed." The screen went black and his disgusting, overly angular face went away.

Z

The party buzzed with big faces and Crims as we waited for the tech-head deciding the course to show up. The only thing that could be heard throughout the party was Takashi and Airi's names. Everyone wanted to know who the winner would be. Every once in a while someone would joke about the girl in the bomber's robe showing up and someone would quickly tell them that was Airi and she was already there.

I had to cover a laugh at that. It would have looked suspicious if the reputation bomber on the edge of the group was giggling.

I had finally decided I was done crying in my room over Airi and the slam feed guy. For under my robe, I got a new jacket with a hood that completely covered my face in shadow and new grippy shoes, just in case someone would recognize my old shoes. I didn't worry about people recognizing my hoverboard; Kaede and Hayate had sent me a new one as an apology gift.

"Everyone please move out to the garden. The race is about to start." Nana love called loudly.

The press of the crowd was unbearable. Everyone was fighting through the doors of the mansion to make it into Nana's garden. I panicked for a few seconds when I got separated from my reputation bomber clique, but once I was outside I was able to find them again.

"Everyone please be quiet!" A tech-head I'd never seen before snapped at the crowd from a hoverboard. I could barely hear him because I was in the back of the crowd with my back facing him. I couldn't see if Airi and Takashi were there yet, and I didn't dare risk turning away from the other bombers.

"Silence!" Takashi snapped. The whole crowd stopped instantly. I rolled my eyes at their absolute obedience. "The way this works is Airi and I have never heard the course. He is about to give it to us, then he will start us off. Does anyone have any questions about this?" He asked condescendingly.

Fury boiled in my chest at the way he spoke to everyone. Before I could stop myself, I whirled around. I grabbed the person standing in front of me's shoulder and shoved him to the side before doing it to the person on the other side. Both turned to glare at me, but I shoved past them.

Ripples spread through the crowd as I shoved my way through, but I barely noticed; I was too focused on beating Takashi and Airi. People started stepping aside from me, and before I had time to process what I was doing, I was at the edge of the crowd and almost to the spot where I hid my hover board in the leaves. I stepped on the hem of my bomber robe and almost stumbled. Tired of the hindrance, I yanked it off and let the river of gray silk trail behind me as I snapped for my hover board to rise. I planted one foot on it and it jumped up in the air until I was on their level.

Shock colored both of their faces; Airi's face leaned almost toward horror.

"You didn't think I was going to back out, did you Airi?" I called clearly.

Below us, the crowd exploded.


	9. Chapter 9

The shocked looked melted off of Takashi's face and was replaced, with a knowing, evil smirk.

He shot straight up, above us, and above the tech head ref. Seeming to know his job was done, the ref dropped down even lower and moved back out of the way. I snorted and shook my head as I realized how wrong I was to believe that Takashi hadn't figured it out.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the real competition begin." He announced.

The crowd below erupted. They were so confused the cheering didn't begin immediately, but it grew if volume and strength until it was deafening. With a flick of his hand Takashi shut it off entirely.

"It's been too long since we've added a new Crim to our ranks, don't you think?" He seemed to be glowing in the attention he was getting from his adoring fans down below.

"What makes you think being a Crim is that much of a prize?" I snapped quietly. Takashi glanced down at me and nodded in almost understanding. Beside me, Airi was fuming.

"We've gotten stagnant; complacent. We've let the edge that made us what we are get dull. If you think that we are any less than what we used to be, you are wrong. The qualities that make us can't be taught or faked; we are born with them. These two women have been selected as potential members based on those qualities. Only one will be added to our membership." Takashi continued, glancing down to me again at the very end.

"Airi!" Someone below screamed, which prompted another round of cheers.

"Why are you doing this?" I muttered to Takashi. I wanted nothing more than to be beat Airi, but the prospect of being forced into the Crims with Hayate was infuriating; I wasn't him and the last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by people like him.

"The contestants will be given a separate location where they will retrieve a flag. The flag will have the location of the end of the race written on it. The first on there will become a Crim."

As soon as he finished his explanation, Morimoto flew over beside us. His face was blank, but his eyes were lit up with amusement as he led out two small, folded slips of paper in his cupped hands. I started to feel nervous as Airi snatched the first one, leaving me to daintily take the second. I barely managed to keep my hands from shaking.

"Hope you have a plan, bitch." Airi snapped cockily as she tossed the paper into the crowd below.

Not deigning to answer, I started unfolding my piece.

MAG LEV LINE, 5TH MILE TUNNEL was typed neatly in the center.

I knew exactly what the paper was talking about. The train stopped at a station in the town, but then it went straight into the wild. Several miles out there was a tunnel through the mountains. I had been there one time in my life. The train was running and I was too close when it came by. The turbulence spun me out of control and knocked me off the side off the mountain right in front of the tunnel. My crash bracelets hadn't worked and I would have died if it hadn't been for a conveniently placed pine.

I was going to be getting to the tunnel about the same time the train ran, and I knew I didn't have time to wait it out. I had a small margin of error on timing, and that's why this was one of the choices; they weren't about to hand you something that wasn't death defying.

"Are you clear?" Morimoto spoke slowly. I was jolted back to reality and I realized that he had been asking me that this was not the first time had had asked.

"Yes." I answered as I handed it back.

"If you're struggling to read the location, you might as well drop now sweetie; your death would give the wardens a heart attack." Airi gloated. She waited for me to shoot something back, but I kept my mouth shut.

"One minute to start." The tech head ref called from the corner.

"I'd hate for something to happen to you." Airi's sweet voice stayed in place, but the intent behind her words was clear.

Stay on the tracks. Stay in front of the train. Watch the air current, or you'll get sucked in.

"I'm surprised you waited this long to send me an invitation to join." Airi flirted with Morimoto. He grinned back at her like they were old friends.

Keep your body low to the board. Don't let her knock you off.

"Thirty seconds." The tech head called again.

"If this goes badly, we need to talk." Takashi's voice came from directly behind me, low enough that only I could hear it. He had obviously floated down while I was strategizing.

"If this goes badly? I'm either winning or going out in a bag." I joked at him.

"Ten, nine, eight."

"Don't be stupid." He scoffed over the tech head.

"Four." My body tensed as I shifted into position.

"Three." I cracked my knuckles and balled my fist.

"Two. One."

Z

"Where's the train? Where's the train? Where's the train?" I muttered to myself repeatedly as I shot down the Mag Lev line.

My whole left side was beaten black and blue from Airi trying to shove me off my board. She had managed to dislocate my shoulder with a well time upward hit, but I miraculously stayed on. After that hit brought tears to my eyes from the muscles ripping and the bones jarring I had taken a major risk.

I curved off down the mountain stream hoping it led to a branch that would put me near the tunnel. I had somehow found one and was now shooting down the tracks.

I thought I had even saved some time, but I really wasn't sure.

The course we were meant to follow probably made a T shape. We started off in the same direction and I split of right while she probably split level. I managed to cut the corner off, but she might have been able to do that even easier than I was. I was hoping I was way ahead and wouldn't meet her on the race to the finish, because I didn't think my body could take that kind of battering again.

I was in serious pain from the first time we were together and it was only going to get worse.

The trees above me seemed like they were getting bigger. I felt like their shadow was swallowing me whole; like I'd never get out of their darkness. I was the only living thing out here, and there weren't any real landmarks.

I was beginning to think I'd missed the tunnel when mountain side changed and the Mag Lev line started to go around curves. I breathed a sigh of relief; the curves came right before the tunnel and once I was done, I could get out of the wild.

The sound of thunder broke over the mountainside as I rounded one of the bends. My head shot up, glancing at the sky for any sign of lightening. Instead, light flashed behind me and the rumble got louder and started to vibrate the ground.

"There's the train." I muttered with more confidence than I felt as I dropped my body even closer to the board so I could be even more aerodynamic.

It didn't help. Within minutes, the train was twenty feet behind me and gaining. I had just decided that I had to bail out of its way when the black yawning mouth of the tunnel appeared around a sharp bend.

I was going too fast; I'd either bail and smash into the mountain, or get run over by the train.

Fear overtook me as I got a super crazy idea.

Not giving myself time to get too scared to do it, I shot upward, dropped down to my belly on my board, and set my crash bracelets so they were magnetized. The train slipped underneath me with enough turbulence that my board was almost flipped over. With it magnetized though, it just dropped down like a rock, hitting the top of the train. I had thrown my arms out a second before despite the pain, and I was now being held to the speeding train by my wrists with board stuck under me.

I hadn't hit the train yet when I felt the top of the tunnel whoosh over my head. Another centimeter and I wouldn't have the top and back of my skull.

I screamed in agony as my weight was forced onto my shoulder. Tears streamed down my face. There wasn't anything I could do though; I had to wait.

After what felt like hours, the damp smell of earth and underground vanished and I was back in fresh air. Wanted to be off, I magnetized my bracelets and board immediately. It was the worst mistake of the night; the turbulence and wind catapulted me off.

Scrambling to keep control of my board even though I was blowing like a leaf in the wind, I wrapped my good arm around it and rolled until I was finally able to get it steady, right side up, and supported by the magnets of the tracks.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I leaned forward and shot through the tunnel, grabbing the flag hanging on the support beam on the end as I went.

I had almost made it back to the train station when I remembered I needed to look at the flag.

The words were distorted because of the tears still in my eyes, but I made out the words CONSTRUCTION SITE. It was on the other side of town and would definitely give Airi time to catch up. I was hurting so bad it was making me lose faith that I would make it.

But then every word my brother's or Han ever said to me started coming back. I made myself get angry and it dulled the hurt a little bit and helped me get going. I wasn't some ugly little extra that was going to bow to every word that a Crim said. I wasn't something to be ashamed of.

I was clearing a pleasure garden when Airi dropped from the sky and broke me from my thoughts. Her hit sent me reeling. Trying to stay on, I spun my body into the hit, letting it spin out my momentum.

She followed me, trying to give me another shove, but I shifted my weight and careened wildly out of the way. I serpentine in the opposite direction, away from the construction site. Deciding she'd rather get there in time than shove me to my death, she yelled an insult and flew away.

The joke was on her though. The city's water supply was held underground in massive wells; the biggest one being right under the construction site. Kaede had taken me there to test some of his mods. While he was distracted, I had explored some of the tunnels and found one that had ended at a drain that wasn't that far from me.

It opened with no problem, and before I knew it, I was in the underground.

The air was cold and darkness suffocating. I drifted quickly through the tunnels, wondering if I was lost. I was just about to turn around and try to find my way out when I found the center aqueduct. I was about to start scanning the room for the exit when several hovercam's lights switch on and flooded the room in white light.

It was full of Crims waiting silently on their hoverboards with Hayate among them.

"Welcome." Morimoto greeted sarcastically. Unlike the others he didn't look as shocked.

"I feel like I've stepped into a Rusty cult sacrifice." I blurted. Sporadic laughter broke out among the circle of clique members.

"Close enough." Takashi's girlfriend replied in an amused tone as she appeared behind me. She helped me drape my bomber robe over my shoulders and put my arm through the sleeve like a sling.

"Are you hurt?" Hayate yelled in concern. His board shot out towards me a little, but I shook my head and he stopped.

"I'm okay." I mumbled. He looked a little hurt. "How far behind was I?" I asked Morimoto.

"Behind?" He barked a laugh. "You've managed to shortcut through half the tests. You're way ahead."

"What?" I asked Neela, obviously in shock. She smiled kindly.

"We designed a few obstacles to make things a bit more interesting, but because you took the mountain stream, and you knew about the other tunnels, you missed them all."

"Bad thing is, you would have come through them a lot better than Airi did." A Crim I didn't know threw in. I felt strangely warm at his vote of confidence, even if he didn't know me.

I beat Airi. I won more respect than I ever thought I would get. Now, it was time to go home.

"I should go. Let her take my place." I told them as I started drifting backwards.

"Rin." Han's voice stopped me dead. I glanced around wildly to see no one else reacting. Apparently they knew more about me than I thought.

"Don't look surprised. Your name's been on a recruitment list for years; we just haven't taken new members." Mormimoto drawled.

I felt a pang in my chest as my gaze fell on Hayate who looked surprised at the news. He made me feel worthless for years when his higher ups had wanted me to be one of them. I couldn't believe it.

"Just consider the offer, Rin." He begged.

"Why? Is that for me or for you?" I snapped at him. He cringed.

"We'll have this conversation later. Takashi wants to announce the winner." Morimoto's eye screen was overlaying his vision, obviously bringing him the ping from Takashi. "Leave the bomber hood up. We announce a name tomorrow night."

"It won't be mine." I snapped. He shrugged and started moving towards the exit. The lights and the other Crims followed.

"You should give it a chance." I tried to ignore Han, but he was between me and the exit so I couldn't exactly pretend I didn't see him.

"If I can expect people like Hayate and you I'm going to pass." I tried to move around him but he stopped me.

"Hayate didn't know you were on the list. He was jealous of the way you idolized Kaede and he was lashing out at you and trying to make himself feel better. He had no idea how bad it hurt." He reasoned.

"What's your excuse?" I replied. He sighed and his lips twitched into a half smile. He shrugged.

"I seriously underestimated you, but after seeing you here, I don't know how I ever could."

"That's a nice sentiment." I mumbled as I moved past him, out into the open night air, and straight into the biggest cloud of hover cams I had ever seen


	10. Chapter 10

"What did I tell you about being stupid?" Takashi drawled over the rim of his drink. He was sprawled in his feed watching chair like a king. It was significantly nicer than anything Hayate had in his apartment. Takashi was obviously using his face rank.

"I don't know; you tell me." I back sassed him. I was way too tired to deal with Takashi at the moment. The Crims had gotten me back to Takashi's apartment, but they didn't take me to get my shoulder looked at so I was still in excruciating pain.

"Room replay feed." Takashi barked.

The wall screen with the image of me wavering shakily in front of the train from the turbulence with the tunnel opening up in front of me. The bone out on my shoulder was obvious under my jacket and the tears were streaming down my face. As the train got closer, I popped up, only to drop and slam down on the train. It went under the tunnel so fast that you couldn't tell if I had made it or not.

"Mom and Dad were extremely worried." Hayate informed me.

"If I had died there would have been a significant amount of blood spatter." I shot back as I sank onto his couch. I almost missed the edge of it until Han grabbed me and slid me back on it gently.

"We need to discuss membership." Takashi refocused the conversation.

"I'm not cut out for the Crims. Give it to Airi." I answered automatically. "And don't worry, Hayate. I'll disappear back into the shadows and you won't have to deal with me anymore."

I was a tired I hadn't experienced in a long time. I was emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted and the pain was making me nauseated. I lay down on the couch and my eyelids drooped.

"Why?" Takashi asked.

"Why to which one?"

"Both."

"Because I care too much about real things. And I don't think I can handle being around him." I muttered weakly as I almost slipped into consciousness. The pain radiating down my arm and across my neck and back and chest was just way too much.

Hayate sighed deeply and I felt the couch dip by my feet. He pulled them up and over onto his lap.

My answer didn't even make much sense. I just couldn't deal with all of the fame grubbing and exclusive bashes that focused on nothing but getting drunk and being more famous than anyone else. There were a lot of times when I wasn't sure if Hayate was happy or even liked anyone in the clique; he was just forced to put up with them because that's what he was expected to do.

"Rin." Hayate muttered as he pushed my hair out of my face. I tried to glare at him, but I didn't have the energy to open my eyes.

"Not many people have the balls to call me fake." Takashi snapped.

"Maybe it's just been too long since you've shown yours." I quipped back in a whisper. He barked a laugh.

"Airi is exactly what you think we are: fame grubbing and arrogant. We're not like that; we just like to party and we actually try to stay out of the hover cams' sight. You only see the parties because that's the only thing we let you see. We haven't changed that much since were uglies, but we can't let anyone know that or we will have serious problems with copy cats." Takashi explained.

"Then why are you here? I haven't a conversation with you in years that didn't involve a number." I cracked my eyes and looked at my brother. He looked down completely ashamed. "Figures you'd be obsessed with that; you know you'll never be anything but second tier compared to the rest of them. You're miserable and lonely and you're trying to compensate for it."

"Rin, that's too harsh." Han said gently from his place on the arm of the couch by my head.

"But ultimately correct." Takashi conceded.

"What do you want me to do? I love you and I always have but you've hated me from the very beginning. Always running to Kaede for everything. You never even gave me a chance." Hayate exploded.

"And you gave me one? You couldn't take your head out of your ass long enough to stop checking your face rank to—"

"That's enough!" Neela broke in from the arm of Takashi's chair.

"Rin are you accepting our offer or not?" Takashi asked impatiently. I glanced over to see him watching the muted feed. It was focusing on Airi as she tried for her flag. As I watched her try to make some of the tight turns and avoid the flock of bats she disturbed when she went down a drain pipe, I realized how good of a hover boarder I really was. She looked so clumsy and off balance; I was sure I could have done better.

"I can't. I skipped half the tests. Being a Crim's sister they'll claim it was a set up to help me out." I answered honestly. After seeing Airi ride, giving her the title made me feel a little sick on the inside.

"So you'll let that take your place?" Takashi gestured to Airi about to fall off her board because she was trying to get a bat out of her hair with his mug of green tea.

"It looks bad on me and you. Tell them it was a test to see who would step up. Tell them you asked me to do it if they ever figure out it was me." My breathing started to get more ragged as the pain started to radiate further. I was trying not to cry.

"Make her pull a trick tomorrow in broad daylight. Break into the warden's headquarters and steal the city's old flag from the Pretty Time. Hang it on City Hall." Morimoto suggested.

"Look at her arm! She can't do anything the day after getting that injury!" Hayate insisted. I snorted, tired of having him tell me what I could and couldn't do.  
"I'm in." I answered through gritted teeth before he could start ranting any more than he already was.

"Good. I'll send up the medic. Han, I think you should go with her with a hovercam, just in case." Takashi ordered.

"In case of what?" I blurted right as Hayate yelled "It should be me!"

Z

"I don't understand why I can't go alone." I murmured into the couch cushion as tears rolled down my face.

"Your shoulder can't take a pull from the crash bracelets. She caught the edge of her hoverboard under your collar bone and ripped every muscle attachment in your shoulder joint; that's why the bones weren't being held together." He explained for about the fifth time.

"I'd still be fine. The medics mostly fixed it." I whimpered as I tried to change positions.

"How bad are you hurting?" I heard him rise from Takashi's chair and move to kneel in front of me.

"Bad but I can handle it." I lied. The truth was I still felt faint and nauseated from the pain.

"I'm going to get you pain meds." He decided for me. I tried to protest, but he was already moving. A minute later, he was handing me a steaming cup of tea. I sat up as best I could and carefully drank it down. Takashi would kill me if I spilled any on his hover ball sweat shirt or couch.

Before I was even finished I could feel the pain starting to dull and my eye lids beginning to droop. I felt like I was floating and it was wonderful. Han gingerly pulled the cup out of my hands and set it on the side table before slipping onto the couch with me. His body heat made me even sleepier and I caught myself snuggling in closer to him.

"Damn, what was in that tea cup?" He chuckled at me.

"You're so out of it that I was little bit concerned about you trying to get up." He answered.

"But I could. I don't hurt anymore. I could move around."

"No. You'd get dizzy. That stuff is really strong. Just go to sleep and I'll wake you up when it's time to go."

I felt myself snuggle my head further up under his chin.

"Okay." I muttered into his shirt as I dropped off to sleep.

Z

"Did you have to give her the serious meds?" I awoke to Takashi asking.

"Yeah." The reply reverberated deeply through the back of the couch that I was laying on. Realizing it wasn't actually the back of the couch, I started trying to sit up.

"Damn." Takashi muttered as Han helped me to sit up fully. I glanced around bleary eyed at Takashi in his pajamas holding a bowl of whatever his breakfast was and Han sitting next to me wearing what he had on the night before. "Still hurting?"

I shook my head at him.

"Good." He replied warmly with a nod before turning back to the screen and resuming his usual cold personality. "Room, pull up the map."

The wall screen turned on revealing the blue print of a building. Only the first few floors were above ground; the rest of the building was buried. The basement was made up of at least ten floors. There were very few exits I could see. The best way in would be the roof.

"Where is the flag?" I asked. My voice sounded hoarse and dry.

"First underground level in that office." He pointed to a larger room in the back middle of the building.

"Is that the mayor's?" Takashi nodded. The mayor of our great city was Takashi's uncle. I'd met him once at a Spring family event in one of the parks and he'd given me the creeps.

"What's your plan?" He asked as he picked up his chopstick and started picking at the rice in his bowl.

"Go in through the roof. I might have hacked into some of Kaede's files and found a way to get past elevator security." I shrugged innocently as Takashi's eyebrows shot up. "I would probably go down a few floors and set off a small alarm in the system for a distraction."

"How do you think you're going to do that?" Takashi asked slowly.

"If you try to break into a door, the security system will flag that there is a problem with that one door and send drones in almost every building I've ever seen. I'd have to tweak the camera system when I get into the elevator system." I answered tiredly.

"What about the mayor?" Takashi pressed.

"He talks about liking to keep a handle on things himself on the feeds; wouldn't that extend to the security of his own building?"

"Good. Now you're exit?"

"They'd move the mayor if they thought there was a breach, wouldn't they?" I began unsurely. Takashi raised his eyebrows in a you-tell-me kind of gesture.

"Hanger bay door?" Han supplied. I nodded. "It'll work. We may have to improvise in some places."

"You're good?" We both nodded. "Well, I guess you have a plan. You leave in three hours."

With that closing statement, Takashi returned to his bedroom and the door slid shut behind him.

"Nervous?" Han asked his a small smile.

"Not even close." I muttered in return as I laid back down to get a few more minutes of sleep.

I snuck one last peek up at Han before I shut my eyes and I just happened to catch the growing smirk.


End file.
